Beyond boundaries

When one thinks of Indian classical music, legendary names like Ustad Allah Rakha, ………. etc come to mind. All of them Indian. But trying to associate classical music with foreigners will make one pause for a while and wonder what they are doing with Indian classical music. “Enjoying themselves” comes the pat reply from this French group called NatrajXT who was in town this weekend entralling the crowds with their beautiful rendition of the Sharod, Sitar, Dilruba, Basuri and Eshar (an instrument which is rarely used today). “They use it at Shantinekatan while working on Tagores renditions” throws in Richard who plays this intrument.

After a year or so they realised that they needed to add more variety to their performance and thus came in the third member of their group – Kapi. And they changed their name from Natraj to NatrajXT. Why, cause Kapi is the extension of their group that’s why! Why name the group `Natraj’? “Lord Nataraja is the God of music, so it was only natural to name our group after him,” they rationalise.